Life Today

All this gloom and doom talk in some of these other threads about how the country is going downhill is nonsense.

There has never been a better time to be alive in the history of human civilization than right now and the best country to be in is the United States of America.

100 years ago, most people worked in agriculture, this was back breaking sunup to sundown labor. Life on the job in the factories was also very tough.

The poverty rate in 1960 was 22.4 percent. In 2000, it was only 11 percent.

The crime rate over the last decade has been the lowest in years.

The average person living in the USA right now will live 30 years longer than the average person would have lived in 1907.

Most childhood diseases have been eradicated. Compare this to 1918 when 20 million people died of the flu.

Since 1970, pollution has been cut by 48 percent.

84 percent of Americans have a cell phone. 80 percent have cable tv.

It is estimated within 2 years, 71 percent will have broadband and 53 percent will have a laptop.

One of the biggest myths is people lack leisure time, although several studies have shown this not to be true and that leisure time has increased by 5 hours since the 1960s. Do you guys realize how much time people spend watching tv everyday.

While we face some major problems, there is no better time to be alive in America than in 2007.

Yes, Brandon, and if you consider life during the Dark Ages, conditions in U.S. 100 years ago were heaven by comparison. Its all relative, and what I was posting about (maybe others feel the same) is what I have seen occur in my country during my lifetime. While we all have blessings -- people in our lives, our health and mental faculties, the ability to move about and do as we want -- that are very real, there are also some very serious problems that (as enumerated in posts below) are very worrisome, with no solutions in sight.

Maybe you are right . . maybe we /I need to look on the bright side more often (guess I've just been watching/reading too much news!). Doesn't hurt to be optomistic, especially since you and I don't control anything anyway.

But . . the best time to be alive in America is 2007? I would vote for the 1950's as a better time. I know my parents would vote for post-war 1940's. I think you could look back on those times as very good. We are still largely dying of the same diseases today that killed people in 1050. And, so many other conditions back then beat the hell out of life today.

All this gloom and doom talk in some of these other threads about how the country is going downhill is nonsense.

There has never been a better time to be alive in the history of human civilization than right now and the best country to be in is the United States of America.

100 years ago, most people worked in agriculture, this was back breaking sunup to sundown labor. Life on the job in the factories was also very tough.

The poverty rate in 1960 was 22.4 percent. In 2000, it was only 11 percent.

The crime rate over the last decade has been the lowest in years.

The average person living in the USA right now will live 30 years longer than the average person would have lived in 1907.

Most childhood diseases have been eradicated. Compare this to 1918 when 20 million people died of the flu.

Since 1970, pollution has been cut by 48 percent.

84 percent of Americans have a cell phone. 80 percent have cable tv.

It is estimated within 2 years, 71 percent will have broadband and 53 percent will have a laptop.

One of the biggest myths is people lack leisure time, although several studies have shown this not to be true and that leisure time has increased by 5 hours since the 1960s. Do you guys realize how much time people spend watching tv everyday.

While we face some major problems, there is no better time to be alive in America than in 2007.

B---There has never been a better time to be alive in the history of human civilization than right now and the best country to be in is the United States of America.
M---I have never been able to live anywhere else to find out if that is true or not.

B---100 years ago, most people worked in agriculture, this was back breaking sunup to sundown labor. Life on the job in the factories was also very tough.
M---We can't afford to even buy wheat products now because the crops were cut back so far as to make room for corn crops for ethynol to run everyone's great big fuel sucking SUV's. Some of us are having a hard time affording the price of groceries so that most of the rest of us can drive those beasts.

B---The poverty rate in 1960 was 22.4 percent. In 2000, it was only 11 percent.
M---I'm still in that 11%, and it isn't so great.

B---The crime rate over the last decade has been the lowest in years.
M---My car got broken into this summer so that somone could steal the clothes I had left in it while I was trying to have some leisure time at the creek. Window, $172, Clothes and prescription reading glasses, still haven't been replaced. Money for window, out of pocket.

B---The average person living in the USA right now will live 30 years longer than the average person would have lived in 1907.
M---That's terrific if you are rich enough. Sucks just a little if you are poor. But hey, if you are poor you probably won't make it.

B---Most childhood diseases have been eradicated. Compare this to 1918 when 20 million people died of the flu.
M---This is good! And I got a free flu shot last year because I am poor, and it saved me from getting sick. Hope I get one again this year.

B---Since 1970, pollution has been cut by 48 percent.
M---But added to it again with all the tons of plastic water bottles that are floating in every stream, creek and river, and that isn't even mentioning the styrofoam. It doesn't decay...it stays here forever, and you don't see it if you don't go outside, but it is all around you. I know, I pick it up!

B---84 percent of Americans have a cell phone. 80 percent have cable tv.
M---And now we all have to pay for calls, whether we make them or not. We used to only have to pay if we made the call. I am in an underserved area...we don't have cable TV available.

B---It is estimated within 2 years, 71 percent will have broadband and 53 percent will have a laptop.
M---Yay!

B---One of the biggest myths is people lack leisure time, although several studies have shown this not to be true and that leisure time has increased by 5 hours since the 1960s. Do you guys realize how much time people spend watching tv everyday.
M---Lots of people watch TV, not everyone does though. Some of us don't have quite that much leisure time, but what we do have is spent outside. But when not outside, sometimes I can't keep my eyes open when I want to rest and read a book. Too much to do wears me out.

B---While we face some major problems, there is no better time to be alive in America than in 2007.
M---This is the hardest year of my life. Being a single parent on a low income is no cake walk. But it is also the very best year of my life, for sure and for certain. I only hope it will get better than it is now. It has too.
Don't be so sure that it is such a great time to be alive.

All this gloom and doom talk in some of these other threads about how the country is going downhill is nonsense.

There has never been a better time to be alive in the history of human civilization than right now and the best country to be in is the United States of America.

100 years ago, most people worked in agriculture, this was back breaking sunup to sundown labor. Life on the job in the factories was also very tough.

The poverty rate in 1960 was 22.4 percent. In 2000, it was only 11 percent.

The crime rate over the last decade has been the lowest in years.

The average person living in the USA right now will live 30 years longer than the average person would have lived in 1907.

Most childhood diseases have been eradicated. Compare this to 1918 when 20 million people died of the flu.

Since 1970, pollution has been cut by 48 percent.

84 percent of Americans have a cell phone. 80 percent have cable tv.

It is estimated within 2 years, 71 percent will have broadband and 53 percent will have a laptop.

One of the biggest myths is people lack leisure time, although several studies have shown this not to be true and that leisure time has increased by 5 hours since the 1960s. Do you guys realize how much time people spend watching tv everyday.

While we face some major problems, there is no better time to be alive in America than in 2007.

Well I know who this is aimed at so I better address your points.

>There has never been a better time to be alive in the history of human civilization than right now and the best country to be in is the United States of America.

A subjective judgment. Many people in European countries would disagree. And you would be surprised how many retirees are leaving the US.

>100 years ago, most people worked in agriculture, this was back breaking sunup to sundown labor. Life on the job in the factories was also very tough.

Goodness, I'm not talking about a 100 years ago. I'm talking in my lifetime- Yes, I'm sure things are better than in 1907 when our cities were full of horse poop.

>The poverty rate in 1960 was 22.4 percent. In 2000, it was only 11 percent.

I have no idea what standards were used here, I think it has been changed many times over the years.

>The crime rate over the last decade has been the lowest in years.

In the 1950s many people didn't even lock their houses. I'd come home from school to a unlocked house and never even thought about it. I never locked my car until I had something stolen out of it in 1978. Today I wouldn't dream of not locking either.

>The average person living in the USA right now will live 30 years longer than the average person would have lived in 1907.
Most childhood diseases have been eradicated. Compare this to 1918 when 20 million people died of the flu.

Yes, medical care is better than a century ago. But it was pretty good in the 1960s and a visit to the hospital didn't cost you a year's wages then.

>Since 1970, pollution has been cut by 48 percent.

True, here is less pollution now- a good thing. But one reason is there are fewer factories- a bad thing.

>84 percent of Americans have a cell phone.

It might be nice not seeing people walking around with cellphone plastered to their ears all the time. Somehow I manage pretty well without one all those years.

>It is estimated within 2 years, 71 percent will have broadband and 53 percent will have a laptop.

Yes, home computers and the internet are one of the few things I would miss if I zip back 40 years.

>One of the biggest myths is people lack leisure time, although several studies have shown this not to be true and that leisure time has increased by 5 hours since the 1960s. Do you guys realize how much time people spend watching tv everyday.

I don't know who's studies these are but why is so many people I know are working two jobs now? And why it when I was a kid moms stayed home and looked after their kids. Today few can afford to do this- it takes two salaries just to make ends meet these days- even with smaller families. We have lost so many good paying factory jobs that the wages of the middle class have not kept up with inflation. Furthermore I recently heard there was only one other major country where workers worked as many hours as Americans. Marseil will tell you that in many European countries everyone gets a full month off of vacation each year.

>While we face some major problems, there is no better time to be alive in America than in 2007.

You can always find individual stories of people who aren't doing well today, but I talking about America as a whole.

Life for a white male like myself (and I assume Nat) was probably pretty damn good in 1960. But imagine being a black woman that year. Here in Nashville, in 1960 a black woman's career choice was either a domestic or a teacher in an all black sub standard school or maybe a nurse at the all black hospital. Now in the Nashville of 2007, a black woman can be whatever she wants to be.

Lots of this has to do with one's background. I'm not accusing anyone around here of any kind of ism. But the country is changing rapidly demographically. I think lots of white men are just uncomfortable by the fact that we now have to share being on top with people of different races and sexes.

Obviously, I'm not a fan of the pop culture that is put out today. The garbage is everywhere and it is difficult to sheild yourself or your family from this filth.

However, those trying to force "mass produced pop culture" down our throats find it harder and harder every year as the ipod, internet, dvd player etc. allows us to choose our own music, movies and tv more today than at anytime in history.

I certainly don't like the fact that many choose unwisely in that area. But if I wanted to I now have the choice to only listen to Christian music, watch Christian TV and rent Christian movies. That choice didn't exist even 20 years ago.

You can always find individual stories of people who aren't doing well today, but I talking about America as a whole.

Life for a white male like myself (and I assume Nat) was probably pretty damn good in 1960. But imagine being a black woman that year. Here in Nashville, in 1960 a black woman's career choice was either a domestic or a teacher in an all black sub standard school or maybe a nurse at the all black hospital. Now in the Nashville of 2007, a black woman can be whatever she wants to be.

Lots of this has to do with one's background. I'm not accusing anyone around here of any kind of ism. But the country is changing rapidly demographically. I think lots of white men are just uncomfortable by the fact that we now have to share being on top with people of different races and sexes.

Here's another one of my "life today" facts that also relates to a subject Nat and I have discussed over the years.

The average American house is 3 times larger than it was in the 1950s while families have shrunk.

This might relate to boys being so body shy now. Kids today come from smaller families and rarely have to share bedrooms or even bathrooms today.

I grew up in a smaller house with 4 other family members. Shared a room with my brother until my sister got married.

Someone at work (who was 22) mentioned one day how embarassing it was when his brother came into the bathroom and caught him coming out of the shower naked. He couldn't believe that I said that was probably a daily occurence in my house growing up. I saw my brother naked every single day and he saw me that way. I saw my dad naked in the shower or bath all the time.

As Nat knows, I'm the most modest person in the world as was my family, but when you have one bathroom and everyone needs to get to work or school, it was just a fact of life.

I never once would have thought it was weird to see my brother or dad nude.

Yes I have discuss much the general bashfulness of today's youth and speculated on the various reasons for it. The housing situation is one that I've mentioned myself on many occasions. It use to be common for all the boys in a family to share one bed room and all the girls another. And there was often only one bathroom for the whole family. Today most kids have their own room, and often their own bathroom. In addition, there is no more nude swimming at YMCAs and summer camps as there was when I was a kid. So kids these days are totally unconditioned for nudity.

You can always find individual stories of people who aren't doing well today, but I talking about America as a whole.

Life for a white male like myself (and I assume Nat) was probably pretty damn good in 1960. But imagine being a black woman that year. Here in Nashville, in 1960 a black woman's career choice was either a domestic or a teacher in an all black sub standard school or maybe a nurse at the all black hospital. Now in the Nashville of 2007, a black woman can be whatever she wants to be.

Lots of this has to do with one's background. I'm not accusing anyone around here of any kind of ism. But the country is changing rapidly demographically. I think lots of white men are just uncomfortable by the fact that we now have to share being on top with people of different races and sexes.

Some might claim I am guilty of an "ism", but I think there is much to be said for the stability of having a dominant demographic group. Countries with a sizeable majority group (e.g., Japan) tend to be more stable than countries with sizeable competing factions (e.g., the former Yugoslavia, Iraq). In the latter countries, "peace" is often forced by a dictatorial presence that, once removed, allows the existing inter-group hostilities to emerge. It doesn't take much to get such groups at each others' throats (or should I say, without a restraining presence, the groups are at each others' throats).

I have posted here before that having a predominantly-Caucasian population has aided U.S. properity and stability. But, as the various minority groups (including Hispanics, via immigration) grow in size and power, there could be increased competition for control. This could especially be true if the economy starts to tank and people struggle more to meet necessities. (One option to having the country possibly torn apart by such conflicts is for it to split into smaller countries, each being dominated by a group).

Personally, I don't think this is racist or whatever, as I think any group being dominant in a given country is good for stability.